The present invention relates to a safety razor system and more particularly to a safety razor having a blade structure with annular cutting edges formed on a surface, which surface is intended to be moved over the shaved area in a plurality of directions.
It is known to provide shaving devices wherein the blade structures have annular cutting edges such as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,614,321, issued to Ackerman; U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,436, issued to Musso; U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,026, issued to Scholin; U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,360, issued to Cerier et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,288, issued to Trotta et al., PCT published application PCT/GB88/0014; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,195, issued to Lazarshik et al.
In the above-reference U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,195, the blade member has an aperture that defines an annularly sharpened edge with main facet portions that converge at an angle of less than 30 degrees and supplemental facet portions that are extensions of the main facet portions, and define an ultimate tip defining a portion that has an included angle of less than 30 degrees. The supplemental facet portions are offset in the same direction from the main facet portions each at an angle of less than 175 degrees and the outer main facet portion defines a shaving plane, the ultimate tip being disposed above the shaving plane less than 0.1 millimeters, and the bisector of the included angle defined by the supplementary facets being disposed at an angle to the shaving plane in the range of 15 degrees to 35 degrees. The blade as disclosed is considered to be an improvement over those blades designed to operate in a similar fashion. However, it has been found that improvement in the mounting of the blade into a shaving system is necessary in order to achieve maximum results from a blade of this type.
In the type of blade discussed above, the design is generally such that it is intended that the blade be moved in a plurality of directions over the surface to be shaved which necessitates that the manner of mounting of the blade into a cartridge or razor is of extreme importance if the device is to accomplish the maximum cutting efficiency on each stroke of the razor across the shaved surface.
In order to provide an efficient shaving system, the system must maintain the entire surface of the blade over which the annular openings are formed in contact with the surface to be shaved, as an extreme tilting of the razor on the surface will cause only partial shaving of the surface and require stroking the surface a number of times to achieve a shave which is of high quality.
The efficiency of the system is further increased when the blade is mounted such that the surface of the blade extends flush with or entirely beyond the means for attachment of the blade into a cartridge or razor, thus insuring full contact of the blade surface with the skin during the shaving process.
It is therefore essential, that the blade be manufactured such that it may be mounted into a cartridge or razor structure with the above in mind and that the rotation of the cartridge or razor head relative to the handle be such that lifting of the blade surface from the skin is inhibited during use.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a safety razor system employing a blade structure with annular cutting edges, which system is simple to construct and easy to assemble.
A further object of the invention is to provide a safety razor blade which is provided with a plurality of annular cutting edges and easily assembled into a cartridge or razor structure.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a safety razor system having a blade structure with annular cutting edges which system is easy to employ and more efficient than those systems which are presently known.